A light in the middle of the tunnel

At the gym last night, my personal trainer had me doing some stretching/bending exercises that absolutely, completely confounded me. Keep back straight, extend hips back, bend knees (all at once). Apparently, my body has never done that, ever. He claims that my pelvis is very stiff. OOH. That explains EVERYTHING.*

* About the martial arts, you pervs.

My back kick has gone straight to hell over the past few of months. No real rhyme or reason as to why it suddenly sucked, though I can cite a painful back, inflexible hips, bad ankle, and a lack of torso length with which to generate sufficient torque all as contributing factors. Yes, I can still break the 3 boards with a back kick, but it’s definitely not as strong as it used to be. I can buy pelvic stiffness as the culprit, no problem.

Oddly enough, the jumping kicks are getting a little bit easier. They aren’t any good, mind you, and still the most unusable kicks ever, but at least there’s been a little bit of improvement somewhere.